Director
David Cronenberg
Leading Actors/Actresses
James Woods
Supporting Actors/Actresses
Debbie Harry, Sonja Smits, Peter Dvorsky, Jack Creley
Genre
Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Language
English
Awards
n/a
Date of Release
1983
Producer
Claude Heroux
Setting and Context
Present day 1983
Narrator and Point of View
POV is that of Max
Tone and Mood
Serious, Dark, Violent, Overtly Sexual
Protagonist and Antagonist
Protagonist is Max. Antagonist is the Spectacular Optical Corporation
Major Conflict
Max plays a new hardcore style tape of violence and grotesque sex and soon learns that the tape gives malignant tumors to the viewers.
Climax
Max has a tape inserted to the slit in his body by Bianca in order to reprogram him to kill Spectacular Optical businessmen. He then takes his own life.
Foreshadowing
The desire to watch more hardcore television foreshadows the danger of this malicious content upon every viewer, especially Max.
Understatement
It is understated that O'Blivion has been dead for some time.
Innovations in Filming or Lighting or Camera Techniques
N/A
Allusions
The film is an allusion to the dangerous and insidious nature of the content on television to transform and potentially kill its viewers.
Paradox
O'Blivion is the leading expert on the subject of television and its effects on the world and he gives his thoughts freely. Paradoxically he is no longer living when he does so.
Parallelism
The insertion of the tape by Bianca parallels the insertion of the gun by Max and the pulsating tape by the corporation into the slit in Max's stomach.
